Two stories shaped everything about how I do this work.

The first is Teddy.

In 1996 I was a mortgage broker. Teddy was a blue-collar worker in his mid-50s who had a heart attack and fell behind on his mortgage.

I helped him refinance. I told him to make payments for one year and we would refinance again.

Ten months later he was in foreclosure. A second heart attack. Medical bills he could not pay.

There was nothing I could do.

Years later I learned that a policy existed in 1996 that would have paid Teddy cash when he had that first heart attack — enough to cover his bills and keep his home.

Nobody offered it to him.

The second is Matt.

In 2013 I was on a nonprofit board. The executive director's husband Matt dismissed some pain — as many of us do — and ended up in emergency surgery.

They found cancer.

His family hit their insurance out-of-pocket maximum in August.

January came — new plan year, new maximum.

March came — the employer changed carriers without reviewing the plan.

New carrier. New maximum. Again.

In seven months Matt's family paid their maximum out-of-pocket three times.

I did not do group benefits then. I did not know about gap coverage. I could not help.

Matt is alive today.

The financial burden was entirely preventable.

These are the reasons I do this work.

I cannot go back and help Teddy.

But I can make sure the next employer I work with never has a Matt.